Students call for standards inquiry

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The body representing 30,000 undergraduate students at Sydney
University has called for an internal inquiry into allegations of
lowered marking and entry standards to cater to foreign students in
one of its faculties.

The Student Representative Council was also concerned that
academics were "being bullied by the university for speaking out
about teaching and learning conditions", its education officer,
Michael Janda, told the Herald.

Writing in the council's newspaper, Honi Soit, Mr Janda
said: "There are sufficient complaints, both to us and from
academics, to suggest that there are widespread problems with
teaching and learning at the University of Sydney.

"The SRC deals with hundreds of full-fee paying students each
year - both international and domestic - seeking help because they
are struggling in their courses, and the ramifications of failing
are so high [thousands of dollars to repeat one subject]."

Mr Janda was commenting on the strong reaction by the
university's management to claims by a political economy lecturer,
Stuart Rosewarne, during a Herald investigation, that the
faculty of economics and business had become a "sausage
machine".

Dr Rosewarne, who is NSW president of the National Tertiary
Education Union, said staff reported to him that the faculty had
lowered standards to cater to fee-paying students with poor
English. The faculty made $39 million from foreign fee-payers last
year.

The Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University, Gavin Brown, responded
with an email to all staff, saying Dr Rosewarne's claims were "a
mixture of unsubstantiated anecdote and innuendo which will be
taken up by overseas publications".

Mr Janda said many staff members had told him privately that Dr
Rosewarne's claims were correct, but were loathe to go public in a
climate where the vice-chancellor accused a whistleblower of
risking future pay rises and job losses among staff.

Mr Janda raised the question of standards at the university's
teaching and learning committee meeting yesterday. Student
representatives plan to take the issue to the university senate
next month.

A board of corporate leaders and other professionals, who advise
the faculty of economics and business, is examining the allegations
and has quizzed Dr Rosewarne.

Professor Brown said that none of the criticisms Dr Rosewarne
had made had been raised in the university by the union.

"This has nothing to do with academic freedom, which I
vigorously defend. It is a simple statement of fact that spoiling
tactics by the union constitute a threat to future wellbeing."